Brass Instruments/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby A boy, Tim, is in a room blowing into a tuba, straining to make a sound, with a robot, Moby, next to him. MOBY: Beep. TIM: This is impossible. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Whatever, I didn’t want to be in the marching band anyway. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, What are brass instruments? Do they have to be made of brass? Yours truly, Emilio. TIM: Well no, a brass instrument isn’t just any instrument that’s made of brass. It’s a wind instrument you play by making your lips vibrate. MOBY: Beep. An image shows five wind instruments. TIM: Well, a wind instrument is any instrument you play by blowing through it. But to play a brass instrument you have to purse up your lips and make a kind of buzzing noise. When you want to hit a high note, you hold your lips together tightly and make a high pitch buzz like this. TIM: And when you want to hit a low note, you relax your lips a little bit and make a lower pitch buzz like this. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, your lips make a silly sounding noise, but if you put a brass instrument in front of them, watch out. An animation shows Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet. An image of a trumpet, trombone, French horn, and saxophone are shown. The saxophone is crossed out. TIM: Lots of instruments are made out of brass, but that doesn’t necessarily make them brass instruments. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Hey, right you are. They do have lots of curves and twists in them. That’s because most brass instruments are really just long metal tubes. An animation of a brass instrument is shown. TIM: The tube is all twisted up in order to make the instrument compact and easy to handle. In general, the longer the tube, the lower the pitch of the instrument, although it also depends on the tube’s width. Buzzing your lips against the mouthpiece causes the tube and the air inside it to vibrate producing a clear tone. The instrument sounds a clear tone. TIM: You can make the sound louder by blowing harder and make it quieter by blowing more softly. The instrument sounds a soft tone. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, there are several categories of brass instruments. An image shows three brass instruments. TIM: Valved instruments like the trumpet, tuba and French horn allow the player to change the pitch of the notes by pressing down on a series of valves. MOBY: Beep. An animation shows air moving through different tubes when the valve is pressed. TIM: Well, when you press a valve, a longer airway opens within the instrument. Different notes sound when the valve is pressed. TIM: This forces air through a longer section of tubing and makes the pitch lower. A picture shows a musician playing the trumpet. TIM: The trumpet is the brass instrument that can hit the highest notes. There are lots of different types of trumpets but you’ve probably heard at least one of them. An image shows three trumpet players. TIM: Famous trumpeters include Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Wynton Marsalis. An image of a man playing a French horn is shown. TIM: The French horn is considered the hardest brass instrument to master. It emits a rich, mellow tone and musicians play it by sticking their hands into the bell. A French horn plays a melody. Moby is shown holding French fries. MOBY: Beep. TIM: No, it’s not really from France. Officially it’s just called the horn but the name French horn stuck in English speaking countries. An image of a man playing a tuba is shown while a low pitch is sounded. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Tubas are the brass instruments that could hit the lowest notes. The length of pipe that makes up a tuba can be as long as five and a half meters. A concert tuba sits on a musician’s lap while a sousaphone, often found in marching bands, wraps all the way around the player. An image is shown of a man standing playing a sousaphone. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, slide instruments are a little different. An animation of a trombone player is shown. TIM: Trombone players change the pitch of their instruments by sliding a long piece of tube up and down. The slide allows trombone players to slide smoothly between notes. The trombone plays a few notes. An image is shown of a man playing a brass instrument. TIM: And natural brass instruments like the bugle don’t have any valves or slides. The bugle plays a few notes. TIM: The only way to change their pitch is through the vibration of your lips. That gives natural brass instruments a very limited range of notes so they aren’t used much anymore. Moby holds a bugle to his head. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, it helps if you have lips to begin with. Moby taps the bugle against his head. MOBY: Beep. TIM: It’s not broken. Moby makes a sad face. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts